Guard-rail and lantern holder.



D. F. MUCARTHY. GUARD RAIL ANDY LANTERN HOLDER.

AIPLIOATION FILED APB. 8, 1905.

W/TNESSES.

D O l Arrower Y f UNITED STATES Patented J' une 6, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL F. MCCARTHY, OF VVATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

GUARD-RAIL AND LANTERN HOLDER SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters-Patent No. 791,713,0lated June. 6, 1905.

l Application led April 8, 1905. Serial No. 254,489.

inexpensive device for supporting guard-rails and lanterns wherever required, as around excavations, along the sides of dltches and trenches, and upon piles of dirt and rubbishin brief,- wherever there are holes or excavations in a roadway or around buildings that require protection or wherever a pile of dirt, stones, or refuse requires to be guarded. v

It is of course well understood that the common way of guarding excavations and piles of refuse is to place planks upon the tops of barrels, anchor the planks and barrels by means -of heavy stones, and place lanterns upon the planks or barrels `or hwangmthemf-'uponnails driven therein. z 5.

This timehonored mode of guarding excavations anddirt piles is cumbersome, inconvenient, and expensive. Itis frequently inconvenient to provide the barrels at the places required and to anchor them in place and likewise difficult to fix the lanterns so that they are not liable to be blown over.

My present invention enables me to provide holders for guard-rails, so called-ordinarily two-and-one-half-inch narrow planks-.

which may be conveniently supported by being driven into the ground, will support the guard-rails edgewisethat is, vertically-will hold them securely in place, so that they cannot be blown away in a heavy gale, and will also provide convenient means for supporting lanterns, holdingl them suspended in such a way that they cannot be blown away.

With these and other objects in view Ihave devised the novel guard rail and lantern holder Vwhich I willl now describe, referring 'to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and using reference characters to indicate the several parts.

Figure 1 is a perspective illustrating one of my novel guard-rail and lantern holders in use supporting the ends of two planks and also supporting a lantern; and Fig. 2 is a view, on a reduced scale, illustrating a plurality of my novel guard-rail and lantern holders as in use. i

My novel holder comprises a shank, (indicated by 10,) a head, (indicated by 11,) and two oppositely-placed'rail-holders, (indicated by 12,) one or `both of which may be provided with a lantern-holder 13.

It is wholly immaterial so far as the invention is concerned how the article is made-that is, whether itis forged or cast in a single piece or made of two or more pieces welded, bolted, or otherwise rigidly secu red together. The exact shape likewise is immaterial-that is, it makes no difference so far as the principle of the invention is concerned whether the shank, head, rail-holders, and lanternf in cross-section. #lhefshankV is'sharp'ened at required that the shank be driven into frozen ground or a macadam or other hard roadway or through a pavement or between stones, I

steel.

In the drawings I have shown the head, shank, rail-holder, and lantern-holder as made integral, although this, as already stated, is wholly unimportant so far as the principle of the invention is concerned. lThe head and shank would ordinarily be made in one piece anyway, as the head should be made of good material, it being required to stand heavy blows of sledges in driving the shank to place in frozen ground or in a hard roadway. The rail-holders extend outward laterally and then upward from the shank or from the intersection of the shank and the head. They are so shaped as to support the edge of a rail and retain it against the possibility of being blown away. In practice I make the upright portions of the rail-holders to stand three inches, more or less, from the opposite sides of the head, so'that the rails may be easily put in place and removed. The railholders require to be made of good metal and heavy enough and strong enough to stand rough usage, but

need not necessarily be made as heavy or of holder are round, angular, or otherwise shaped;

preferably either roll or forge the shank from IOO ashigh-grade metal as the shank and the head. rIhe lantern-holders 13 are simply prongs that extend outward and upward from the railholders. They are so shaped that a lantern may be readily suspended therefrom and as easily removed, but will be in no danger of being blown away by a heavy wind. They require to be made heavy enough and stiff enough so that they will not break off when the holders are thrown about or otherwise subjected to rough usage.

Having thus described my invention, I clairn- 1. A guard-rail and lantern holder comprising a shank sharpened at its lower end, a head adapted to receive blows, a rail-holder extending upward andoutward from the intersection of the shank and the head, and a lanternholder extending from the rail-holder, subtaitially as described, for the purpose speci- 2. A guard-rail and lantern holder, for the purpose set forth, comprising a shank adapted to be driven into hard ground, a head adapted to receive heavy blows, rail-holders adapted to receive and support rails and a lanternholder extending from one of the rail-holders.

In testimony whereof I aliix mysignature in presence of two witnesses.

DANIEL F. MCCARTHY.

fitnessesz DAVID A. MCCARTHY, WM. H. Lown. 

